Pastor Rick Warren joins Esiason conversation, says put family first

Friday

Apr 4, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 4, 2014 at 2:51 PM

Pastor Rick Warren reminisces about disappointing a group in order to put family first. It's part of the conversation surrounding Boomer Esiason's suggestion that the birth of a child is no reason to miss the first day of baseball play.

Lois M. Collins

Pastor Rick Warren has joined the conversation about family vs. work with a Facebook post reminiscing about disappointing a group in order to attend to his son's needs.
It's part of a national conversation sparked after Boomer Esiason suggested that the birth of his child was no reason for Mets infielder Daniel Murphy to miss opening day. The remark kindled a fair amount of heat.
Friday, Esiason, a former NFL player who hosts a New York radio show, apologized for the comments that he'd made. He had said Murphy and his wife should have scheduled a C-section for the child's birth rather than miss two games.
On both the radio show and CBS Sports Minute, Esiason apologized for creating an intrusion into "a very sacred and personal moment in their lives," the birth of son Noah. He called his remark "insensitive" and "flippant" and thanked folks at March of Dimes "who graciously reached out and re-educated me that if a pregnancy is healthy, it is medically beneficial to let the labor begin on its own rather than to schedule a C-section for convenience. In fact, babies born just a few weeks early have double the risk of death compared to babies born after 39 full weeks of pregnancy."
In his post on Facebook, Warren, who pastors a megachurch in Lake Forest, Calif., acknowledged the apology, but reminded church leaders that "Your ministry to your family must always take priority over your ministry to others. I once cancelled speaking to 60,000 Promise Keepers in a stadium to keep a promise to my youngest son, who was 10 years old at the time. Matthew was struggling with panic attacks and afraid to go to a church camp. When he said 'Daddy, if you'll go with me, I can do it' there was no question in my mind what was the right thing to do. I cancelled speaking to PK and went to camp as a cabin counselor."
He told them, "You'll never regret putting your family first."%3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A//beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif%3Fcid%3D159572%26pid%3D46%22%20/%3E